Abstract Guidelines (.pdf file)

November 9, 2008

Dear Colleagues:

On June 10-June 13, 2009,the Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference, Annual Meeting will convene at the Given Institute in Aspen, Colorado. The theme of the Conference will be “The Environment and the Lung: Detection, Prevention, and Mechanisms of Disease”. With an emphasis on integration between basic, translational, clinical sciences, the meeting will address important issues relevant to public health and medicine.

Anchored by eleven “State-of-the-Art” presentations, thematic sessions will address new emerging exposures, nanoparticles and respiratory health, inorganic dust exposure and lung disease in agricultural workers, biomass fuels, the impact of global climate change on respiratory health, epigenetic and genetic influences on the risk for environmental and occupational respiratory disorders, experimental models at the interface of occupational asthma and skin sensitization, advances in exposure assessment and control of indoor pollution in relation to risk asthma, the immune response in environmental and occupational disorders, and mechanisms of fibrosis, including the role of stem cells in changing disease outcomes.

As with previous Aspen Lung Conferences, we will utilize the successful format of State-of-the-Art presentations grouped with relevant, short presentations. Each presentation will have sufficient time for discussion to facilitate a lively exchange of new ideas and thoughts on the epidemiologic, preventive, cellular, molecular, physiologic and genetic aspects of environmental and occupational lung disorders.

There will be five honorary lectures: the Parker B. Francis Lectureship, the Roger S. Mitchell Lecture, the Giles F. Filley Lecture, the Thomas A. Neff Lecture, and the Reuben M. Cherniack Lecture. The Conference Summary will be given by David Christiani, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., Professor of Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

We are particularly interested in attracting abstracts related to the broad topics above. Accordingly, we invite you and your colleagues to submit abstracts for consideration for presentation at the conference. Please use the enclosed abstract form as your guide. The deadline for abstract submission is February 14, 2009.

All who submit abstracts will be invited to attend the conference. Time limitations, however, do not allow all submitted abstracts to be presented. In the past, about one third of the submitted abstracts were accepted for presentation or poster sessions based on evaluation by a Selection Committee.

This year, we will offer a Thomas L. Petty Fellow Travel Award in the amount of $1,000 to one fellow whose abstract has been accepted for presentation.

All investigators will be notified on or near March 21, 2009 about acceptance of their abstracts. Additionally, please notify us if you wish to attend, even if you do not plan to submit an abstract, as we expect a large turnout.

We look forward to your participation in the Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference and to a combination of outstanding science and great fun. We hope that you and your colleagues will be able to join us.

Abstract deadline is February 14, 2009.

For more information, contact
Lee Newman, M.D.,
c/o Jeanne Cleary,
Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference,
1414 S. Lima Street,
Aurora, CO 80012.
Phone: (303) 724-6038; (303) 752-2681.
Fax: (303) 752-2678.
E-Mail: aspenlungconference@comcast.net.